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One of them is rolling a 18 for your main stat; the other is deciding that a 15 is good enough. :)

Pretty much all knowledge checks in skill-based systems basically acknowledge that a particular character's knowledge is all in a Schrodinger's box state; the check is just when we actually decide to open it. I do think the check will generally have an in-fiction narration, though; it's the...

Well, it might create a situation where the players all sagely nod their heads and say "Yep, there's no way we would have known how long that ritual took, all of us getting killed by the ritual definitely enhanced the verisimilitude of the setting" while rolling up new characters. :)

I don't think this metaphor is exactly aligned with what I was proposing. At its core, my proposal is that the player's can't "choose" to roll; a roll only happens when the GM decides a consequence might be inflicted if their action incites a roll.

Since we're in the context of predominantly trad/classic play for this use case (exploring a pre-designed module), my assumption would be GM judgment/fiat as to whether an action declaration causes a raise of stakes; more than likely this is a determination based on the module's pre-generated...

I mean, they're worse off than they would have been if they had made the check! I think of it this way: the starting position of the PCs at the start of the module is "might learn the important info that will help them survive". After the failed check, their position is now "did not learn the...

I mean, I would probably buy a new setting (and I haven't bought a WotC product myself in 6 years). I like new stuff! But I think 5e, as a system, would be better off making campaign frames, like Daggerheart. A few maps, maybe a new race or two, and a bunch of character-building concepts all...

I don't generally know what a campaign is about until we're about halfway in. My campaigns are generally framed around a specific starting situation (often started in medias res), with a party of characters having an immediate short-term goal that organizes them. But I don't have any plans of...

Yea, it isn't a big mechanical change, but I think it works well for @Bill Zebub's case of wanting the players to make their declarations within the fiction instead of using a mechanical option on the table. But at the same time, it also empowers character concept (and the mechanics supporting...

I wish I did! Most games with rogue-like progression I've found are OSR/NSR games with simple resolution engines (I'm thinking games like Cairn and Knave here). Most crunchy games feature increasing player-facing decision choices all throughout the leveling process (which makes sense...

Something I was thinking about during my drive to work: What if skills were saves? Rather than being something on the sheet a player invokes to do something, they become a particular competence at avoiding the consequence of taking a risky action? That changes the gameplay loop to one where...

That doesn’t seem denigrating to me. A lot of TTRPGs could benefit from being as thoughtfully designed as a lot of modern board games.

I do think a reachable goal for an AD&D revamp would be to keep the generation of character stats consequential for determining character concept (and ideally, something that can be strategized around). But also without being overly punitive to the point of making any set of rolls completely...

Oh, I agree. I was thinking more of raising the requirements on the core 4, and lowering the requirements on the other classes.

Method V + raising ability requirements would get you pretty far from "the dice screwed me over" while still providing a fair amount of randomized character "texture", I feel.

Totally agree on the impact, but I see that as feature, not bug. It creates a strategic tradeoff between using your 18 on Str to get an early boost to damage (at least +2, and maybe more and an attack bonus with a lucky d100 roll), or buffing your other stats at the expense of low-level combat...

Slow scaling of the baseline features acquired at character creation (15-20% times increase in potency or frequency every 4-5 “levels”), primarily magic item progression, and unlockable boons/feats/“prestige classes” would be my ideal. Not necessarily all the options in the game, of course...

I'm pretty flexible, in that I enjoy multiple approaches; sometimes what I do like in one system is something I don't enjoy in another! Some games feel better with tight constraints, others work better with a looser approach. What I enjoy most is an approach relatively underserved; a game with...

I like something similar too. If I was hypothetically hacking AD&D, I think I would let a 1st level fighter set their Strength to 17 if it wasn't already there, and then go up by 1 tier every level after that. So 18 at level 2, 18/01 at 3, 18/51 at 4, etc., up to 18/00 at 7. So rolling high...

A pretty core problem here is that there an awful lot of situations that occur that are more likely to be solvable with more people to help. If you have some kind of puzzle, or need to remember some obscure fact, it just makes sense that having 5 people give it a try is going to be more...